No man is an island. Or is he?

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2007)

Ewan Mcgregor's come a long way since his breakthrough role in TRAINSPOTTING (8/10). And boy has he had fun doing it. He's played dancers, and sung (successfully), played soldiers and star warriors, cartoons and crooks. In fact the only commonality is that they are all so different. But the one thread that runs through is that he's just so goddamn likable! In this film he plays a human clone,Lincoln Six Echo, who comes to have a sense of awareness; an awakening sensibility. He starts having bad dreams that have no sense of continuity with his own memories. And the story is of his relationship with Jordan (played surprisingly well by Scarlett Johannsenn) and his own growing awareness.
It's pretty easy to tell the good guys from the bad ones; going back to Tom Mix cowboy films, the good guys are in white and the bad guys in black. Actually some of the good guys eventually do dress in black so lets rephrase that; the guys in white are the non sentient and the ones in black have self awareness.
Unlike a lot of big action films of now, the acting is of an exceptional calibre and talent list. Whereas the talent in most action films tends to be of porn star calibre, here we have Sean Bean in a major role as well as the cheese monkey Steve Buscemi in a minor but essential one.
Djimon Hounsou plays the seeker who has to go out and hunt down. While this role is a relatively ordinary one, he brings gravitas and style to it. He's an extraordinary actor who has been nominated ( and is my pick) for a best supporting actor Oscar after being cruelly ignored in the astounding AMISTAD (9/10).
Michael Bay is the bomb. Literally. He lives for the big explosion/ chase scenes. This is the guy who put the arms in Armageddon. (6/10) and the Bad in BAD BOYS. With romantic interplay, you can feel it's very much the second directors job to do that while he does the more exciting stuff.
The film has echos of GATTACA (10/10) of a controlled future, where society is controlled and the freedom of choice is taken away for the greater good. It works as an action film and asks a couple of interesting ethical questions along the way. Happily you won't be baying for the directors head after this one.